NOAA and MMS Marine Minerals Bibliography Documentation

From 1983 to 1991, the National Geophysical Data Center actively compiled a
comprehensive, computerized bibliography and geochemical data base on
offshore marine mineral deposits. This Marine Minerals Project was a
cooperative effort between NGDC and the Ocean Minerals and Energy Division
(OMED) of the National Ocean Service of NOAA from 1983-1989. The Office of
International Activities and Marine Minerals (INTERMAR) of the Minerals
Management Service, (formerly the Office of Strategic and International
Minerals) added its support to the project from 1985-1992. In 1992, the
bibliography and database were released by NGDC on CD-ROM.

The Marine Minerals Bibliography includes references to present-day marine
deposits of ferromanganese nodules and crusts, placers/heavy minerals,
phosphorites, and polymetallic sulfides from the mid-1800s through 1990,
and references over 17,000 published and unpublished documents.

Fields in the Marine Minerals Bibliography include author, title,
publication/serial title, date of publication, language, etc., as well as
several key word categories including geographic area and type of study
conducted. Subject key words are annotated with "technical" or "general"
to indicate whether a subject was mentioned briefly, or was explored in
detail. Key words also include the names of each mineral and each element
mentioned in the article. Geographic keys include ocean or sea name,
coded designations for the ocean/sea, the name of any pertinent geographic
feature, U.S. exclusive economic zones (e.g. East Coast), and geologic
setting.

Many documents relevant to marine minerals were not "key worded" for the
Marine Minerals Bibliography. Only articles which directly mentioned a
deposit of one of the four types listed above were included - not articles
which, for example studied water column chemistry in an area of known
interest, but never mentioned a mineral deposit. Many of these closely
related articles are to be found in the bibliography, with the "STATUS" of
"NOT KEYED,RELATED." Such articles were usually discovered in the list of
references at the end of an article on marine minerals, requested, read,
and then determined not to have direct information on a deposit. The
related articles were kept in the bibliography with a "NOT KEYED,RELATED"
status in order to avoid re-requesting and re-reviewing them.